


bad day

by darlingtimes



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25792957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingtimes/pseuds/darlingtimes
Summary: Nothing is going well for Yuki, but the Summer Troupe is there to change that.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	bad day

**Author's Note:**

> just wanted to write how i think yuki might handle bad days, and also the summer troupe! hope you enjoy!!
> 
> * only spoilers is kumon's existence! nothing alluding to the story
> 
> * minor content warning: blood and scrapes; yuki trips and injures his knees a little

Nothing was going well for Yuki.

He did not understand that new math lesson in the slightest, as evident by his diving grade.

He was art blocked, his sketchbook left with a meager two pages left from all the lukewarm scribbles he’d been doing--and if he ran out, that’d be it, because the only shop that sold the specific type of paper he liked had closed up for the month, thanks to the owner going on vacation.

He needed to get that costume _done_ , but it was taking everything he had to keep his stitches straight and actually make progress, because his head felt muddy and gritty and terrible and he felt like he was going three times slower than usual. It didn’t help that he was the only pair of hands working on it--the dumb dog was off-duty, since it looked like college was taking its toll on his brain (and not that he’d ever admit it, but Yuki wanted to give him a break).

To top it all off, he hadn’t worn a skirt in what felt like _ages_ \--it was uniform, sweats, pajamas, and uniform, rinse and repeat; no room for style, because he had to _work_. (It made him regret, not for the first time, that he didn’t buy a uniform skirt. God, that skirt was cute. There wasn’t even anything written in the school regulations against him wearing it, and at this point, he might even take a bullet to have that classic silhouette and swish around his legs, forget any jeers.)

Sighing, he finished off the hem of the costume he was on. He still needed to attach a few baubles if he wanted to get it done in time. Tomorrow--today?--was the weekend, and he could rest then.

Yuki let his focus slip for just a second to dream about free time. All he had to do was power through what he needed to until lunch, and then he could take a shower, wash off the week’s burdens, and wear that adorable summer dress hanging in his closet. Muku said he was free, so maybe they could go out for something sweet. A crêpe with whipped-cream and strawberries sounded _so_ nice, dusted with powdered sugar… And when he came back, if he didn’t have any ideas, he could conk out for eight hours. If he got inspiration, then he could jot down some messy ideas for fun on some scrap paper…

But that’s for later. Sitting up straight, he doodled some sweets onto a sticky note, reached across his desk to stick it among all the deadlines and reminders on his calendar, then stretched. Just a few more adjustments to the costume before sleep, maybe even let himself cry a little in bed to relieve some stress.

“You’re still up?”

Save that cry for another night. What was the hack doing back, wasn’t he spending the night on location?

Internally groaning, he lowered his arms and turned his head towards Tenma’s voice. “Is that new? I have work to do. Didn’t you, too?”

“The shots went great and we finished early, so I figured I’d come back for practice tomorrow. Woah, you look terrible.”

“Thanks, welcome home.” Yuki snorted and turned back to the costume. The day was almost over, he wasn’t about to let Tenma ruin it more.

“Uh, good night, then.”

“Night.”




A few hours later, Yuki woke up to a new day! And surprise, he did not feel any better.

But that’s what the break in his schedule later was for. Rubbing his crusty eyes and glancing at the dress hanging in his closet, he climbed down his bed to throw on some sweats and get ready to go to the rehearsal room.

Yuki was the last one there, Muku just a step ahead of him.

“Good morning, Yuki! Did you… sleep well?” Looking into Yuki’s face, Muku’s smile wavered with concern.

“Morning. I’ve slept better. Anyway, are you still free after lunch today? Wanna go to the crêpe shop that opened a couple stations away?”

“Oh, yeah!”

The troupe chattered loudly as they did their warm-ups, waking Yuki up from his early morning sluggishness--or at least, it usually would. His head still ached.

“--since Tenten’s here, we can totally work on our action skills today!”

Work on our _what_? Yuki shot Tenma and Kazunari a subtle glare from across the room. Damn the hack for coming back early.

_Get through this and you can have dresses and crêpes. Just get through..._

With that thought fueling him, after they grouped off into pairs of needs-work and pretty-good, he practiced fighting with Misumi with no complaints.

Besides that, getting sweaty sucked, but hey, everyone says that exercise is a good refresher, right?

Wrong.

It was staged fighting, so it wasn’t like he was getting beat up, but thanks to his coordination being significantly dulled by a headache and lack of sleep? It might’ve well been him getting beat up, he was so out of breath.

Yuki caught himself before he fell to the ground, unbalanced after he aimed a kick at Misumi’s side.

“Do you want to take a break, Yuki? You look...”

Shaking his head and frowning, Yuki readjusted his stance. “Another round. Practice is almost over, anyway.”

It’s just a practice routine, he’s done them so many times. Screw feeling unbalanced, screw the headache, he can _do it_. He’s an angry little brother, make the motions sloppy, but with vicious intent. Run at Misumi, punch, punch, dodge, kick. Punch to the face, fall to the side, get up again.

He knew what to do, but apparently that means nothing when you’re on an unlucky streak. When Yuki made to close the distance between them, he _tripped_.

“Yuki!” Misumi called out, and Yuki braced himself.

He threw out his arms so his head was safe, but his knees slammed and slid on the shiny floor hard enough to burn. _Stupid synthetic material and stupid friction, that’s going to leave a hole_ , he thought.

Grunting, Yuki sat up, trying and failing not to twist his face in pain. He didn’t want to look at his knees, but they stung, so he gave them a glance.

Scraped up and bloody. Oh, God, and he was going to dress up today. Stupid scrapes and stupid bandages. So much for short skirts and pretty legs to cheer up. He could feel his eyes prickling, hot with tears threatening to spill out.

“Yuki, are you okay?”

Gritting his teeth, he muttered, “I’m fine,” to Misumi. And to the rest of the troupe, who had turned their attention onto him.

“Yuki, you’re bleeding!” gasped Muku.

Kazunari headed towards the door and called out, “I’ll go grab the first-aid kit!” while Muku ran towards Yuki. The only pair left was Tenma and Kumon, and after a hesitant pause, Yuki heard the hack tell Kumon that they should finish up before ending practice. (At this, Yuki felt the smallest drop of relief. Frankly, it was better than them quitting early and having more people crowding around Yuki like he broke a bone.)

“Let’s go over to the wall. Does it hurt?”

Misumi and Muku looked worriedly at Yuki, and his gut wrenched. His bad days should be his and his alone.

Yuki nodded and got up to move, ignoring the arm Muku offered. “It doesn’t hurt.” He wished he had said it dismissively, but he had to shove the words out through the knot in his throat.

When he sat down at the wall, Misumi and Muku followed, covering both his sides. It would’ve taken more effort to talk, but he still had to bite his tongue against his first instinct of being contrary and telling them to leave him be. He bit harder when a few tears slipped through the dam, and tried to distract himself by rolling his pant legs up.

“I’m back!” Kazunari returned, medical things in hand. Muku waved at him from where they were sitting with his free hand, the other one rubbing Yuki’s back. (Only fine because it was Muku. Maybe it was a little healing.)

“Here ya go. Clean it off with this first.” Yuki silently took the cleansing wipe. “Also, we have a variety of bandages! Since I saw we had all these stocked up I thought you might want a cute one.”

Yuki looked up to see Kazunari grinning softly and shaking the bandage boxes in his hands, each one displaying different colors and patterns: the classic Band-Aid, fruit print, mascot characters, stripes, polka-dots. Come to think of it, he remembered buying them with the Director at some point.

It was such a stupid thing to feel better about. But so was being brought to tears over some knee scrapes.

Tension seeped from his shoulders, some light-headed, dizzy feeling replacing it. Sucking a shaky breath in, Yuki said, “I’ll… take the strawberry ones.”

“You betcha!”

“Can I have one too? The triangles!”

“Sure, Sumi!”

Kazunari handed over the goods, and while Yuki patched up his knees, Misumi decorated himself with the triangle-patterned bandages, shoulder still warm against Yuki’s as he chatted with Kazunari.

Quietly nudging Yuki, Muku said, “The bandages are cute. I didn’t know we had them, but I guess we don’t use them too often.”

“Uh-huh... I picked them out with the Director.”

Someone cleared his throat. Someone being Tenma, because no one else in the room was self-important enough to do that.

Before he could talk, though, Kumon broke in, as noisy as always.

“Are you okay, Yuki?!”

The boy in question winced, lifting his hands to cover his ears. “I’m fine, quit yelling.”

“Ahh, sorry! That’s good to hear!”

“Mm.” A smile tugged on Yuki’s mouth as he looked up at his friend.

Tenma scrunched up his lips from beside Kumon, probably because he Kumon took his line. Finding a new sentence to say, he opened his mouth and blurted out, “I can treat everyone!”

“Huh?”

Immediately flushing, Tenma scrambled to elaborate. “Um, Kazunari was talking about how we haven’t gone out as a troupe together in a while this morning, and I saw the dessert you stuck on your board thing, so I thought maybe you wanted to go to cheer yourself up, and I happen to be free today...”

“I stuck that on my calendar because I was already going to get some with Muku today, though.”

“Oh. That was your calendar? Hey, stop laughing!! Fine then, you don’t look like you need cheering up anymore anyway!!”

“C’mon, Tenten, don’t cancel your invite!” Slinging an arm around Tenma, Kazunari grinned at Yuki, whose giggling had twisted the worried atmosphere into something brighter. “Whaddya say, Yukki, Mukkun? You okay with us crashing your café date?”

“Ooh, I wanna go! Are there gonna be ice cream triangles?”

“Urk, desserts… But… I wanna go too! I’ll bring something home for Nii-chan!”

“Um, I’m okay with that if Yuki is! Yuki?”

Sitting up straight again and looking at the circle around him, Yuki didn’t bother to tone down the wide smile on his face.

“Sure, why not?”


End file.
